Holder Warns on Spread of Terrorism From Iraq and Syria

Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Oslo, Norway, July 8, 2014. In Norway, Mr. Holder made a major address on international efforts to confront the security threat posed by violent extremists traveling to and from Syria. (AP Photo/Anette Karlsen / NTB scanpix)

Associated Press

Attorney General Eric Holder said if Islamist fighters succeed in Iraq and Syria, it is “just a matter of time” before they try to launch attacks against the U.S.

In an interview the aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Mr. Holder said that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham at this point “is a body that is concerned about doing things only in Iraq and in Syria. If they are able to consolidate their gains in that area, I think it’s just a matter of time before they start looking outward and start looking at the West and at the United States in particular.”

The ISIS advances, Mr. Holder said, represent a resurgence of al Qaeda-linked groups. President Barack Obama has on dozens of occasions said some variation of the assertion that al Qaeda is on “a path to defeat.”

“Al Qaeda’s core has certainly been diminished,” Mr. Holder said. “But as we have been saying for some time, other factions of al Qaeda have become stronger and now even groups that were once part of al Qaeda and have now split from them have become strong.”

Mr. Holder last week talked to allied countries’ justice ministers about tougher strategies to prevent Westerners traveling to fight in Syria’s civil war and returning home radicalized and ready to commit domestic terrorist attack. In the ABC interview, he called the conflicts in Iraq “more frightening than anything I think I’ve seen as attorney general.”

“This is a situation that we can see developing and the potential that I see coming up, the negative potential I see coming out of the facts in Syria and Iraq now, are … quite concerning,” he said.

Mr. Holder said there are about 7,000 Europeans and Americans fighting in Syria and said western nations are planning on how to prepare for the fighters’ eventual returns. He said new prohibitions on carrying certain electronic equipment onto U.S.-bound flights stems from intelligence gained from people fighting in Syria.

“This is not a test,” Mr. Holder said. “We’re doing something in reaction to things that we have detected.”

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